So, wait...let me get this straight: Having a sticky, shrieking, incontinent, Goldfish-cracker-dust-covered rug-ape bounding unescured around the back of a mini-van, obstructing your view, hearing and attention while you try to navigate dense traffic is regarded as "dangerous?"

MaxxLarge:So, wait...let me get this straight: Having a sticky, shrieking, incontinent, Goldfish-cracker-dust-covered rug-ape bounding unescured around the back of a mini-van, obstructing your view, hearing and attention while you try to navigate dense traffic is regarded as "dangerous?"

1) Whenever possible replace the word kid or child with 'crotchspawn'.2) You were never a kid and your mother was never a whore for giving birth to you.3) Relate story about one time a baby or toddler was bad on your flight because you f*cking paid $1000 to be crammed into a sardine can going 500mph and you can't be bothered to buy a nice $200 pair of noise cancelling headphones that will last you the rest of your life.4) Alternate airplane horror story: some kid behind you kicked your seat, forcing you to relive memories of being in middle school.5) Your relative has a child and they are fine - it's YOUR child that is the problem.6) Kids should be beaten so they learn their lesson. You don't abuse your child that's why you fail as a parent.7) Babies can't even eat by themselves or go to the bathroom without help what kind of bullsh*t is that?8) Kids these days, all they do is listen to crappy pop music and Twitter sex messages. Why in my day...9) Abortions are really cool and make an amazing sucking sound. I got one so should you and...hold on I have to cry for a few minutes...10) My life is awesome because I don't have them.11) Kids are horrible investments.12) People with kids are less happy.13) Stop sharing your life with your children with us.14) Overpopulation blah blah blah and f*ck adoption.

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

or is it that now if you physically discipline a kid in public you are apt to be arrested for abuse?

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

Yep. An extension of the "it's oppression to make anyone follow rules" attitude.

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

OMG people have different parental styles. Plenty of kids are fine and their parents aren't whatever version of what you think you don't like about society. There are always and have always been exceptions.

The information age and the rise of two-parent family income homes has brought with it tons of parental challenges, including parental advice which is so overwhelming it's very likely 'don't hit your kids because studies have shown that it doesn't work and may in fact make your kid violent' leads them to indulge them without any sort of discipline, which was not the point of the whatever article they had read in the first place.

Not to mention, I'm not so old that I don't remember having temper tantrums or acting up in public with my parents in the past - like just about every kid I knew. And I think I turned out OK.

I put on the DVD to entertain them, give them snacks and drinks, and tell them to let me drive in peace unless they are puking, bleeding or choking. Back in the 80s, my mom would just somehow dislocate her shoulder, swing her ninja arm into the back seat of our station wagon, and manage to smack all three of us upside the head without looking.

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

No they didn't. It's the same damn complaint every farking generation. "Kids these days!!!"

This was my youngest brother. He loved trucks of all kinds. Every time he saw a truck, he would jump up and down (car seat rules not so strict back in the day) and scream TRUCK!! TRUCK!! TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!

Yes. And if your "parenting style" includes completely ignoring your filth-streaked spawn as it runs at full speed around restaurants, emitting a sound so loud and grating that it should incur an OSHA workplace-safety review for the staff, then your "parenting style" is known as "The Wrong One."

pdee:In a sane world we would now start a conversation about what is acceptable risk rather than anything in the name of safety.

Unfortunately we don't live in a sane world.

I'll take the risk of driving down the road with my kids in the car carrying on about Captain Underpants and Professor Poopyhead or whatever while drinking my coffee and listening to the radio, and won't give a second thought to it.

None of the snark changes the fact that kids just plain used to behave better in public, because their parents weren't indulgent hipster jagoffs who let the tiny assholes get away with bloody murder. Kids acting up and pitching tantrums in public used to be a shocking rarity.

In my work i see less of the middle ground. Either the kid is bouncing off the walls and the parent says "i don't know what to do with him, despite never trying any sort of real discipline, or they are so beaten and cowed they can only say "yes sir" to everything.